The passage of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill and electronic accreditation and voting have been identified as some ways of increasing voter turn out in the 2023 general election.
Election Network made this submission in a statement after the viewing of their documentary, Left Behind Thursday in Abuja.
According to them, the 2019 general elections recorded the worst voter turn out in the history of elections in Nigeria.
“The 2019 elections were a setback for Nigeria’s electoral and democratic framework. Officially, over 80
million Nigerians collected their voter cards from INEC but only about 30 percent of those people voted
during the elections, the lowest recorded voter turnout in the history of Nigeria’s democracy”.
They attributed the low turn out to voter fear among other factors.
“We found that these Nigerians were stalled by
factors like administrative shortcomings, intimidation, and violence. But what stood out the most is
violence. Between 2003 and 2019 alone, over 1932 electoral-violence related deaths were recorded, with
626 of these deaths occurring in 2019 alone”.
They called for the passage of the electoral act amendment bill which they said in addition to some other factors will result in better elections.
” This overarching law on elections in
Nigeria, when passed, will help put in check several irregularities but more importantly, give way
for the full implementation of electronic voting during elections”.
The network also opined that Electronic Accreditation, Voting and Collation will ensure credibility in the voting system.
Other measures suggested to ensure credible elections include prosecution of electoral offenders, transferability of votes,inclusion for people living with disability and financial accountability.
Left Behind is a documentary showing interviews with Nigerians who chose not to or were unable to vote in the 2019 general elections with the aim of showing the impact of election deficiencies on average Nigerians put together by Election network
a digital media company delivering creative, intelligent and data-driven
journalism around global elections
NewsAnnexOnline 